MEville to WEville with Start to Finish Literacy Starters

The MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program originated based on the belief that students with significant disabilities can, and deserve the opportunity to, develop generalizable literacy skills that can be applied in novel contexts, on assessments, and in every day life. The curriculum provides the type of scaffolding necessary for students to achieve this goal.

MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program is a research proven multi-year literacy curriculum for beginning readers with significant disabilities in grades k-5. This curriculum helps teachers accelerate student outcomes by building generalizable literacy skills.

The MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program was conceived by Dr. Karen Erickson, AbleNet, Inc., and Don Johnston, Inc. The partnership brings together the power of MEville to WEville with AbleNet's scientifically-supported early literacy and communication curriculum and extended MEville to WEville lessons that leverage the strength of Don Johnston's research-based Start-to-Finish® Literacy Starters content – all combined with the research expertise of Dr. Karen Erickson.

"Roughly 90% of students with multiple disabilities never learn to read above the 2nd grade level (Koppenhaver & Yoder, 1992). The fact is that too many students with disabilities get 'stuck' at the emergent literacy level. This means that they may listen to text for enjoyment, gain information from listening, and participate actively in reading activities, but they are not able to independently read new text that is presented to them. This clearly limits students' ability to be competitive in school and to gain information independently."

"Most popular approaches for leveling early literacy materials contain steps too large to show progress for students with significant disabilities."

- Erickson, K., Musselwhite, C. R., & Ziolkowski, R., (2002) Beginning Literacy Framework